Sonatas for Violin and Piano: David Abel and Julie Steinberg

Perhaps the most transcendent of David Wilson’s brilliant recordings, this remarkable LP of solo violin accompanied by piano comes as close to putting the two performers in the listening room as any ever made. Recorded on Wilson’s Ultramaster Recorder, built by John Curl, and using a spaced-pair of Schoeps microphones driving vacuum tube electronics, the recording has a close perspective which heightens transparency and engagement as well as wonderfully capturing the beautiful tonality of Abel’s Guarnerius violin and Steinberg’s Hamburg Steinway without exaggerating their size. The duo performs these works as if they are one. Also on Wilson Audiophile: Abel/Steinberg play Beethoven and Enescu Sonatas; Hyperion Knight (piano) plays Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata.